Jai Courtney in talks to join Suicide Squad

Lined up to play Deadshot

Warner's Suicide Squad casting drive continues apace, with Variety reporting that Jai Courtney is currently in talks to play Deadshot.

A regular villain in the Batman universe, Deadshot will apparently be one of the key characters in the forthcoming film, which will see a group of supervillains carrying out government missions in order to wipe their respective slates clean.

Should Courtney sign on the dotted line, he will line up alongside Margot Robbie (Harley Quinn), with Tom Hardy and Will Smith also thought to be in advanced negotiations.

Variety also reports that Hardy's prospective role would be founding Suicide Squad member Rick Flagg, while Smith has been pencilled in to play Captain Boomerang, a long-standing nemesis of The Flash.

Directed by David Ayer, who is also giving the script a rewrite, Suicide Squad will open in the US on 5 August 2016, with a UK date yet to be confirmed.